The Fondazione Pini history is long and troubled. In January of 1967 mrs. Maria Pini with testamentary wishes gave birth to a Foundation equipping it with a building and a farmhouse with the onus of her nephew Patrizia Ferri’s life-long assistance. Eligio Ferri, founder and first president of Anffas Parma section, was Patrizia Ferri’s grandad.

Because of this, Anffas has always been a part, with its own representative, in the Foundation Council. The will was subsequently contested by the heirs, resulting in a halt to all action.

Only at the end of the 80s, once the legal proceedings in favour of the Fondazione were concluded, it was possible to better specify its purposes, in particular, Article 2 of the Charter of Association states that ‘the Fondazione’s purpose is the assistance and rehabilitation of persons suffering from mental disabilities, resident in the province of Parma’.

In the meantime, the building underwent considerable degradation, also due to squatting, to the point that the Foundation’s Board of Directors deemed it more
convenient to proceed with the sale of the assets and, with the proceeds and a substantial contribution from the Emilia-Romagna Region, build from scratch a complex better suited to the residential needs of disabled people. At present, after having finally identified the area (freely granted by the Municipality of Parma in Via Casaburi) on which to build the residential centre for the disabled, we are waiting to start work.

Once the work is complete, it is expected that the new complex, which will take the denomination of “Centro socio operativo riabilitativo per disabili (Socio-occupational rehabilitation centre for the disabled)”, could give an answer to the “after us” problem, accommodating 16 people inside it on a residential basis.